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Known in Britain as a "Christmas Special" (not to be confused with a Christmas Special, a series or franchise based on Christmas itself), the Christmas Episode is a one-off seasonal episode of an ongoing series, typically a comedy or comedy drama. Sometimes the Christmas Episode will be shown in two or three parts over consecutive nights, typically in the build-up to Christmas Day. Only the most popular shows get their Christmas episodes shown on Christmas Day itself.

Note that unlike other holiday episodes included in a series, the Christmas Episode is usually a special production or commission separate from the season it occurs alongside; as such, it generally just features the series' core cast (and sometimes, popular secondary characters) and is not necessarily in continuity to the rest of the season — though it can also be used to set up major changes in continuity through events such as a Christmas wedding or (and this is a popular one for obvious reasons) a Christmas birth, which can then be canonized in the next year's season. Alternatively, the Christmas Episode may be the last-ever episode of the series, as happened with the UK version of The Office, Doug (before getting Un-Cancelled), and Only Fools and Horses (although the latter had more Christmas Episodes commissioned afterwards).

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In Britain, a more recent variation is a specially recorded Christmas day message on Channel 4 which is then run in competition to the Queen's televised Christmas message (recent years have seen announcements from Ali G and Marge Simpson). However, since this is breaking the Fourth Wall, it is not typically part of an actual story.

During the 1980s and 90s, British Christmas specials usually took place in some decidedly un-Christmassy part of the world such as Florida (Only Fools and Horses) or Majorca (Birds of a Feather). This has proven unpopular in recent years.

If a Christmas Episode is depressing in tone, this is a case of Twisted Christmas. British Soap Operas in particular tend to make the Christmas Episode the most depressing episode of the entire year. (Which is saying something; Brit soaps like EastEnders tend to be depressing anyway.) It is not uncommon for a long running character to die in Christmas Episodes of this kind, and another occurrence is a disastrous Wedding Day where everything goes wrong and the wedding doesn't occur, or a disastrous birth where the baby, mother or both die in the process.

Examples:

Note that in Japan, Christmas has roughly the same cultural significance as Valentine's Day does in the West — so Anime Christmas Episodes can have an additional romance theme to them. See Christmas in Japan for details.

Axis Powers Hetalia had a special with Finland dressing up as Santa and answering fan mail with his puppy Blood-Smeared Flower Egg. France then hijacks the special and runs around molesting other countries and forcing them to strip.

There was also one where the Allies and Axis are visited by Finland as Santa, who gives them gifts, and one where Italy, Germany and Japan interview the other countries about their Christmas traditions. In the Webcomic, there's a strip where Britain and Germany call a truce on Christmas and play a game of soccer/football, based on a real-life event. There is an episode in the anime where America holds a Christmas party.

The Chrono Crusade anime has an episode where Chrono, Rosette, and Azmaria celebrate Christmas with the rest of the Magdalene Order before they begin their journey to California to save Joshua. The manga follows a slightly different timeline and mentions Christmas, but doesn't have a traditional "episode" per se—the final battle actually takes place over Christmas Eve and ends at sunrise on Christmas Day.

Crayon Shin-chan had an episode with 3 Christmas themed parts, the first being about a troupe of performers coming to Shin's kindergarten class to put on a play, the second about Shin helping his mother (and her firends) give away some gifts and the third about Shin's parents fretting over how they're going to get their son a Christmas present.

While Eyeshield 21 is not essentially Christmas themed, the Deimon Devil Bats aspire to and eventually do go to the Christmas Bowl, the biggest game of the year played on Christmas.

In later volumes of Happy Happy Clover, the main characters Clover and Mallow discover the story of Santa Claus. But their school teacher, named "Professor Hoot" takes the book away from them and doesn't allow them to read the rest of it. Since he told them that the whole Santa story was for "Grown-Ups". But Clover tells about Santa Clause to Kale's baby brothers, which he would later find out and start ripping the letters to shreds. Clover and her friends then decided to deliver their Christmas gifts to Kale's brothers much to their amusement on Christmas morning. Near the end of the story, Clover and her friends wake up and see presents laying around them home wondering if Santa actually did visit them on Christmas Eve.

Haruhi Suzumiya starts off The Movie (and the novel it's based on) with a Christmas Party, though it is very decidedly not the focus of the story.

Episode 12 of I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying takes place on Christmas, but Kaoru and Hajime can't spend the day together due to Kaoru having to work late. So Hajime goes to a party with Kaoru's friends and their husbands. And since she has to work the next day, they can't spend any time together that night either, so it ends with Hajime reaching for a box of tissues.

Ichigo Mashimaro concludes with one of these. Nobue tries to preserve Matsuri's belief in Santa Claus by shutting down Miu's attempts to tell her the truth, and by dressing up as Santa Claus herself.

Episode 11 of Is the Order a Rabbit? starts with a Christmas Marketnote The premise is located in a Japanese town which looks more like a German one, and the main bulk of the plot has the girls and the side characters working at Rabbit House to serve customers during this time of year. Cocoa also secretly gives Chino a present while she's sleeping, but then falls asleep next to her, though Chino appreciates the thoughts behind the gift.

The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA episode "White Christmas" has Tylor trying to make a Christmas Eve date with Yuriko, only to get sidetracked by a kid whose mother is stuck working late.

Jewelpet (2009): Episode 38, in which Big Bad Dian decides to ruin Christmas for everyone using a brainwashed Io. At the end it turns out that Santa Claus is way cool.

Jewelpet Twinkle: Episode 39 features Akari taking her love interest Yuuma on a tour of Jewel Land on Christmas Day.

Jewelpet Sunshine: Episode 38. The first half is about the Jewelpets helping Sakuran do her job as Santa's helper. The second half is a messed up midnight mass, only with a JerkassCrystal Dragon Jesus instead of plain ol' Jesus.

Jewelpet Kira Deco!: Episode 38, in which Peridot is Santa's helper and instead of reindeer, Santa uses an ice turkey-phoenix thing to get around.

Jewelpet Happiness: Episode 38, about the gang setting up their Cafe for Christmas, only to have an overeager Jewelpet screw things up. Nene and Mouri develop their romance as a bonus.

Lady Jewelpet: Episode 38 shows Christmas as celebrated by Petit Ladies in the Royal Palace. Much romantic drama ensues between Momona, Cayenne and Elena.

In Chapter 9 has Kyouka experience her first Christmas when she and Ousuke visit the Yamato household for a Christmas party where they dress up in Christmas costumes, eat a Christmas feast and take part in an obstacle course race. The episode also serves to introduce Aria Yamato, Tarou's younger sister.

Chapter 21 sees Kyouka, Hinata, Kumi & Aria make a Christmas Cake so that Hinata can use it as bait in a trap for Santa.

Episode 9 is called "Christmas Eve". It starts out like a Christmas episode up until Nanoha and Fate visit the hospital where Hayate's staying so she won't be alone on Christmas. Little do they know that Hayate's the Morality Pet of their enemies and the Mana battery for their Artifact of Doom. What follows is An Ass-Kicking Christmas that lasts for 3 episodes.

Episode 11 is called "A Present For Christmas", although more than one present is given. Fate gets to meet Alicia, and The Book of Darkness gets a name (Reinforce).

The first Megami Sound Stage takes place on Christmas Eve in A's, although strangely enough, it suggests that after Nanoha and Fate visited Hayate, they went to training without any further problems. In the sound stage, Nanoha and Fate discuss topics like believing in Santa and what they do to celebrate Christmas, in addition to their thoughts on the current situation.

Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, twice. There were actually three episodes that took place on Christmas, but one was plot-important and didn't focus on the holiday itself... although it did have a Christmas birth.

Chapter 8 had Tohru decide to throw a Christmas party. Due to the anime rearranging the timeline, the party was changed into an excuse for Kobayashi to get out of the company cherry blossom viewing festival. The anime had its own Christmas episode later on when all the dragons performed a very loose adaptation of The Little Match Girl at a retirement home.

Kanna's Daily Life had it's own Christmas chapter, where Kanna and Saikawa spend the day handing out cookies to people as good deeds so Santa will bring them presents. It ends with the cast having another Christmas party, though neither Kanna or Saikawa take part due to them having fallen asleep.

Nisekoi had a story arc in the manga that ran from late 2012 to early 2013 that dealt with Raku attempting to get Chitoge's extremely busy mother to spend time with her daughter on Christmas.

One Piece anime had a filler (which went on to become regular filler) of the cast in Feudal Japan with Luffy as a detective. The first episode had a Christmas ending with Chopper, who was vaguely busy all day, being one of Santa's reindeer. Chopper, the blue-nosed reindeer.

Pokémon has several episodes that are Christmas- or winter-themed, and the true Christmas one ended up being banned from TV for containing Jynx, perceived by one woman to be an offensive caricature (but not before it got released to video).

This is more explicit in the manga story the film was based on, where Luna's transformation is treated as a Christmas gift.

School Rumble. Harima uses Tenma's present for Karasuma as transportation.

Sgt. Frog had an episode where Keroro plots to take over the world at Christmas while everyone's guard is down, but everyone drops out one by one. Eventually he goes to help Kogoro by dressing up as Santa and giving away Christmas presents (so as to get onto Santa's good list and to get a present for Christmas).

Shugo Chara!: The show tends to move with the date upon the episodes creation and further release, and, there - fore, has several ones taking placed within winter: however only a portion (One where Su loses her way home, and upon being found via Amu and her other Chara, Amulet Clover is created for the first time, and one involving Amu strengthen her path with Lulu at her house within christmas, and some more, slightly less christmas focused ones around them.) are more than slight Christmas-related tryings.

Strawberry Marshmallow's episode revolves around the discovery that Matsuri still believes in Santa, and efforts to keep her from finding out otherwise, to the point of climbing a ladder to her bedroom to leave the latest Harry Potter book by her bed. In the anime, Nobue wonders afterwards what the point was of delaying the inevitable. (Also in the anime, Miu invents a story in which she asked for such far-out gifts when she was little that "Santa" gave up and wrote her a letter telling her that her parents would be taking over that duty, and to please go easy on them.)

Tokyo Mew Mew had a two-parter with a Mew Aqua time bomb on top of the giant city Christmas tree. It also inserted foreshadowing for an event in the Grand Finale that also happened in the manga, but there, went unexplained.

Toradora! gets a lovely one where all the main school age characters end up alone and probably in tears because they've all been ignored, rejected or rejected someone they did like. Except for Yuusaku. Nobody who's willing to be in that costume could possibly be feeling down.

Wandering Son had one where Nitori and Takatsuki hang out with Yuki and her boyfriend.

Yo-Kai Watch: Subverted in one episode. It starts with Nate getting ready to see the Christmas lights with his crush Katie (and their two other friends), but a freak blackout quickly ruins Nate's plans. When he does go to see the lights with his friends, he misses it when he needs to chase off a yokai.

In an early YuYu Hakusho manga chapter, Yusuke meets the spirit of a girl who fell ill and died while waiting for her boyfriend, Kenji to show up to meet her on Christmas Eve of the previous year, not knowing that she'd been stood up. When Kenji shows up to meet another girl on this Christmas Eve, she realizes that he never cared for her, and Yusuke takes her out for some fun, enabling her to happily pass on. Yusuke then takes revenge on Kenji by pretending to be one of his other girlfriends; when he tries guessing which one, his current girlfriend gets angry after realizing how unfaithful he is.

A particularly good one that takes place out of continuity has Superman attempting to visiting an upset child dressed up like a Santa Claus-verison of himself. Batman shows up and chides Superman for acting childish and making himself look silly, which tarnishes his reputation as an icon for good. Superman reluctantly agrees and ditches the costume, but still decides to leave all the gifts he was going to bring for the kid. But as he enters his house, the first thing he sees is Batman dressed up as Bat-Santa... he actually just wanted to hog all the glory for himself. Supes gets pretty pissed and proceeds to smash Batman's face in.

Kara: We don't do it for the glory. We don't do it for the recognition... We do it because it needs to be done. Because if we don't, no one else will. And we do it even if no one knows what we've done. Even if no one knows we exist. Even if no one remembers we ever existed.

In DCU Infinite Holiday Special issue #1, Supergirl gets to answer some of the Christmas letters that get sent to her cousin. One of those letters is from a girl who wants to see her father. However her father is an asshole who doesn't want his daughter to know he is a screw-up. Supergirl manages to talk him into clearing things up with his ex-wife and daughter through... unorthodox means. Several months later (in Supergirl #50), the little girl thanks Supergirl for bringing her dad back:

Supergirl: You know the cliché, Fred. Everyone does. "When you're about to die, your life flashes in front of your eyes." But I've been there, and it's crap... isn't it? You see something, though. You see the holes... the missing bits. And all of the things that would have made your life complete, if you had one more year... a day... a second. I don't know what you saw, Fred, but considering you were in free fall for a solid minute, I bet it was an eyeful. Maybe you are a screw-up. A loser. A drunk. But maybe, the piece you're missing... can make you something better. But only if you go to her, and try. Merry Christmas, Fred. Hope it's a good one.

In the DC Universe Holiday Special 2008: A Day Without Sirens, a "Day Without Sirens" is proposed right before Christmas. Commissioner Gordon believes such an initiative is doomed to failure. The criminals of Gotham would never heed such a calling. However, the day proceeds without police sirens. It turns out that Kara Zor-El and Barbara GordonIt turns out handled covertly all emergency calls during that day◊.

Oracle: Just rest easy knowing you did something special today. Supergirl: You really think so? Do you think this one day is going to make a difference? Oracle: I know so. Never discount the healing power of a little hope, Kara.

Marvel had at least six featuring The Punisher. Frank Castle dressing as Santa to gun down mafiosi? Two years in a row? Awesome!

Marvel even did a story once where a little blind boy who was kidnapped by bad guys on Christmas Eve gets rescued by Ghost Rider and is convinced for the rest of his life that he was saved by Santa Claus.

And another time Doctor Doom took the mantle of Santa Claus.

Even Howard the Duck got in on the action in the third issue of the black-and-white 64-page version of his comic, where he had to save Christmas from being taken over by a villain named Greedy Killerwhatt.

A Green Lantern storyline had Larfleeze (an Orange Lantern who represents avarice) discovering Christmas and attempting to celebrate it. Hilarity Ensues. It ends with a bit of a Tear Jerker, however...

The Hack/Slash bonus story Slashing Through the Snow, featuring a wannabee slasher named Rudolph. Despite the name, he was a Bad Santa. Also, it was done in chibi-style◊.

Against all odds, Sin City had a Christmas one-shot called Silent Night. Outside of the title and the funny pin-ups in the back, the comic simply looks as if it takes place on a snowy night.

Hitman #22: The Santa Contract. Tommy and Nat are hired to kill a radioactive murderer in a stolen Santa suit on Christmas eve. The best part is the rhyming narration In the Style of... "Twas the Night Before Christmas".

"Word!" Said his homie, "I got my nine! Now let's go bust a cap in that nuclear swine!" So they took their nine 'mils and a big forty four, and a hand grenade Tommy'd been keeping in store, and enough ammunition to fight a small war. And went off to inform vile Bob of the score.

For a few years, Superman would do a Christmas issue where the hero answers some letters that pile up in the Metropolis post office.

The Beano often has a bumper issue for Christmas usually being on sale for two or three weeks rather than the usual week. The Christmas issue would also often feature long stories involving all the current Beano characters. Which is unusual seeing as the Beano is an Anthology Comic.

The Smurfs had "Little Peter's Christmas" and "The Smurfs Christmas" as its comic book stories.

The Christmas issue of Jem and the Holograms involves the titular band being paired up for Secret Santa with their rivals The Misfits.

The Beetlejuice comic books had a "horror-day" issue in which the cover story, "Get Me to the Church on Slime," takes place at Christmas. The focus isn't really on Christmas, however, but rather on the fact that Lydia's celebration of the holiday gets hijacked by her ghostly best friend being forced into marriage. It Makes Sense in Context (kind of).

The Spin-Off series Perspectives has two in a row. The first interweaves with the events of Boy Scouts ½, part 13, but from the perspective of the spin-off's main characters. The second follows later that evening, and is Yet Another Christmas Carol.

Mare of Steel had a side story that acted as a Christmas Episode; Rainbow suits up and finds a ship caught in the middle of a storm. She destroys the storm, and then carries the ship into port, all so a father doesn't have to break his promise to his daughter that he'd be home for Hearth's Warming.

The Star Trek Online forums have a monthly literary challenge, and the December 2014 topic was "Winter Wonderland Celebrations" (in reference to the in-game winter event hosted by Q Junior). Worffan 101 wrote a short with the crew of the USS Patagonia, showing off winter festival decorations for several species, and catrie had a short journal entry by her Orion captain talking about her experiences with traditional Christmas (she especially likes presents). Things got darker after that with grylak's USS Viper getting half-destroyed in another galaxy ("not everybody has a good Christmas"), and then starswordc went completely off-book and wrote "Solaere ssiun Hnaifv'daenn", which all but ignored Christmas in favor of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Rose Of Pollux's A Lifetime Away, among others. It focuses on Jamie's first Christmas away from Scotland.

Christmas with a Corduroy: Dipper and Mabel invite Wendy over for Christmas. Having done Apocalypse training with her family as a holiday tradition, Wendy has to adapt to having a traditional Christmas, while dealing with the twins' overprotective mother.

The DysFUNctional Christmas is a Christmas spin-off for The DysFUNctional Pirates, complete with parodies of Christmas movies and specials, all of the randomness of The DysFUNctional Pirates}}, and at least one reference to Inception in every chapter.

Dragon Ball Z Abridged turned The Tree of Might into this: the whole plot started because Krillin wished for the perfect Christmas tree and Turles is basically what would happen if the Grinch was a Saiyan.

They also Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans to Plan to Eradicate Christmas with ghost copies of Freeza, Cooler, Lord Slug, and Turles being summoned to kill the Z Fighters and machines that fill the air with a terrible miasma to kill everyone on earth summoned by Santa Claus himself.

Olaf's Frozen Adventure, a featurette that airs alongside Coco, is about Olaf learning about Christmas traditions in order to brighten up the holidays for Anna and Elsa, who haven't been able to celebrate together for years due to Elsa's self-imposed isolation.

Films — Live-Action

Love Finds Andy Hardy, the fourth film in the 16-film Andy Hardy series, finds Andy and his family at Christmas time. Andy is worried about getting a date for the big Christmas dance after his steady girlfriend Polly leaves town to spend the holidays with family elsewhere.

Literature

Sherrilyn Kenyon's The Dark Hunters series includes a short story based on a character named Gallagher experiencing his first Christmas as a Dark Hunter.

The Sherlock Holmes canon includes "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle", a story about a stolen gemstone, a man down on his luck, a Christmas goose, and forgiveness. The story is actually set two days after Christmas, but pretty much every adaptation is set either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

The Space Captain Smith universe includes two Christmas themed short stories (When Slay Bells Ring and The Celery and the Ivy), written as free downloads for the fanbase.

Charlotte MacLeod's Rest You Merry is set during the Christmas celebrations in Balaclava County.

Tim Dorsey's series about Serge Storms has one novel set during Christmas, When Elves Attack. Serge is determined to win a Christmas decorating contest, using (among other things) a tree stuck halfway through his front door. He does win.

Agatha Christie wrote Hercule Poirot's Christmas, later adapted into an episode of Poirot. She also wrote a short story called The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, which was also adapted into an episode under the name The Theft of the Royal Ruby.

The Laundry Files has the short story "Overtime," where Bob - due to being laid up after a mission gone wrong - has failed to fill out his request for holiday leave on time, and ends up doing security detail at the Laundry over break. Given the setting, he really doesn't want to deal with anything crawling down the chimney...

Many Rainbow Magic books are about holidays. Christmas itself is particularly popular, having at least five fairies devoted to it.

Relativity has the story "Bajo el Muérdago," which takes place at Christmas and has the majority of the main characters visiting one of Sara's foster fathers in South America.

The Agent Pendergast series has White Fire, where Pendergast and his sometimes assistant Corrie Swanson attempt to solve a murder mystery during Corrie's Christmas Break.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid has two books that focus on Christmastime: Cabin Fever (Book 6) and The Getaway (Book 12), the latter of which doubles as a Vacation Episode as the Heffleys take a Mexican resort vacation to avoid traditional Christmas weather and hassles — unfortunately, the resort turns out to be packed with other families and couples who have the same idea.

Dilly The Dinosaur had a story "Dilly and the Book of Bad Behaviour", in which Dilly, the naughty young dinosaur, worries that if he gets excited for Christmas, he'll be naughty and Santa won't come so he disallows his family to mention Christmas.

Mog had the story "Mog's Christmas Calamity" in which the titular cat accidentally sets her family's house on fire on Christmas.

The Beatles sent a flexi-disc Christmas record to members of their fan club every year from 1963 to 1969. The records included Christmas songs, jokes, messages to Beatles fans, and general goofiness. In 1970, a compilation album, The Beatles' Christmas Album was released.

The Bangles also made Christmas tapes for their fan club in the '80s, "inspired by - okay, a blatant ripoff of" (said The Bangles' Vicki Peterson) the Beatles recordings. They later released Holiday in Bangleonia, a limited-edition CD with both a re-release of their 1983 recording and a new one for 2004. The Bangles revived the tradition in 2009 with an annual holiday podcast.

It may be unusual for a summer activity like drum corps to have Christmas-themed shows, but the Cavaliers (1991's "Cavalier Anthems Advent Collection") and the Cadets (2012's "12.25") pulled off such shows.

Kids Praise: This series actually has two of them: Psalty's Christmas Calamity and Psalty's Family Christmas Singalong.

Podcasts

The Cool Kids Table game All I Want for Christmas is set on Christmas Eve. That being said, it was also their first pair of episodes and they were actually released in July.

2015: RiffTrax Live! Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (alternate cut repackaging a cheap adaptation of "Jack and the Beanstalk" instead of "Thumbelina") plus the shorts "Santa Claus' Story", "Custard the Dragon", and "Santa's Enchanted Village" (the last was previously featured in the 2012 show); the website also offered up I Believe in Santa Claus (film) and the double feature "Have a Mary Jo [Pehl] Christmas and a Bridget [Nelson] New Year!" ( Scrooge (1951) and short "The Little Lamb")

2016: "RiffTrax Holiday Double Feature" reran the 2009 and 2013 live shows in theaters; online "The Second Annual Bridget and Mary Jo Christmas Special!" and "RiffTrax Christmas Circus with Whizzo the Clown!" each riffed upon a different pair of seasonally-themed shorts.

An ongoing theme of SHINE end of year shows starting ar 23, where Mia Yim wore red and green, Leva Bates was red and green, Daffney was a reindeer.

Puppet Shows

Barney & Friends has had two one hour specials. The first was Barney's Night Before Christmas in 2000 and the second was 2002's Barney's Christmas Star.

Sesame Street has had a few Christmas specials during its run. The earliest was the prime time special Christmas Eve on Sesame Street in 1978. There was also the commercial broadcast special A Special Sesame Street Christmas in that same year. 1996 had Elmo Saves Christmas and 2007 had the commercial special Elmo's Christmas Countdown. 2016 had Once Upon A Sesame Street Christmas, set in the 19th century, with lots of Identical Ancestors.

Fit the Seventh of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was commissioned by the BBC as one of these, but ended up having absolutely nothing to do with Christmas as Douglas Adams simply couldn't think of an idea. (Seeing as it was still advertised as a Christmas special, this may well be a subversion.) It was, instead, used as a way of tying the first two phases together — and, as a result, which one it's actually attached to is rather vague. The LP and CD of the Secondary Phase opens with Fit the Seventh, clearing up the confusion.

The Burkiss Way had three episodes over its run that were broadcast around Christmas and could be considered Christmas episodes:

The second episode of series two, entitled "Lesson 8: Plan Christmas Schedules The Burkiss Way", which mocked the space-filling rubbish that gets shown on TV at Christmas;

The sixth episode of series three, entitled "Special Christmas Show", which starts with an announcement that it cannot be opened before Christmas;

And the final episode of series five, broadcast on the 26th of December but entitled "Eric Pode of Croydon's Easter Special". It contains nothing about Christmas, but does have a man being diagnosed with Terminal Hogmany.

The First Nighter, which ran on NBC radio from 1929 to 1953, first broadcast a Christmas episode titled "Little Town of Bethlehem" in 1937. By popular demand, they performed the episode every year until their last Christmas episode in 1952. The 1945 installment can be heard here.

The episode od The Now Show closest to Christmas has a jingle-bells theme tune and a Christmas theme. In 2010, they did a topical-news pantomime.

2011 had The News Quiz Panto, in which Sandi Toksvig went on a magical quest to Radio 4 Land to find the missing pips. Representatives of nearly every show on R4 contributed, from the Gardener's Question Time panel as the magic beans, to the villain of the piece being Graham Seed, supposedly bitter about the death of his The Archers character, Nigel.

Cabin Pressure had one on a plane, obviously, in the 2010 episode "Molokai". Featuring an impromptu seven-minute celebration on the flight deck, with turkey made from bits of a chicken sandwich and a green umbrella in lieu of a tree.

Tabletop Games

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space suggests the GM runs a scenario outside the normal campaign during the holiday season, wink wink. The game is obviously based of the adventures of a certain Time Lord...

Spirit of the Season is a Christmas and Hanukkah-themed supplement for Spirit of the Century, featuring pulp-adventure versions of Santa Claus, his reindeer (actually humans in this case), and a handful of Jewish allies as ready-made Player Characters.

Theme Parks

During the holidays, Disney Theme Parks are famous for going all-out with special seasonal entertainment, but year-round attractions getting Christmas-specific overlays include:

Both Disneyland in California and Tokyo Disneyland turn "The Haunted Mansion" into "Haunted Mansion Holiday", themed to The Nightmare Before Christmas. Since Nightmare also encompasses the Halloween holiday, this overlay opens in late September!

"It's a Small World" gets a Christmas makeover that, among other things, adds carols to the usual Ear Worm soundtrack at the California, Paris, and Tokyo parks (and briefly in Hong Kong).

Starting in The '80s and lasting until the Turn of the Millennium at the U.S. parks, the Country Bear Jamboree became the Country Bears Christmas Special for the holiday season. This version still turns up at Tokyo Disneyland as Jingle Bell Jamboree.

The Jungle Cruise at both American parks becomes the Jingle Cruise starting in November, with a thin storyline involving a shipment of holiday decorations being lost in the jungle on the way to the base of operations added to the usual script — along with plenty of seasonal puns.

At Walt Disney World in Florida, after Halloween has passed the Magic Kingdom's central icon Cinderella Castle gets an overlay of lights that make it appear iced over at night. The stage show A Frozen Holiday Wish presents this as Queen Elsa of Arendelle's work.

Freezeezy Peak in Banjo-Kazooie where the bear and bird get to play Santa and decorate and "be the star" on the Christmas tree.

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! had a unique code that made all the bonus levels Christmas-themed. After finding the Cheat menu, type in MERRY and suddenly the bonus levels will have Christmas music replacing the normal music, Christmas ornaments instead of stars, and presents instead of green bananas.

The third bonus level of the second Ouendan game has a guy sending a text message to his girlfriend on Christmas excusing his lateness, and the Anthropomorphic Personification of said text message has to reach its destination.

Granblue Fantasy: Every year, new Christmas-themed characters are added to the gacha dressed in Santa clothes. The season is set to Winter and enemies are based on characters or concepts from several Christmas-related stories or tales.

Persona 3 and Persona 4 have this. In 3 the cultural differences are even explained nicely to the International audiences. So yes, Christmas Eve is usually spent with your Love Interest.

Chapter 3 of Bully is set around Christmas (with one mission actually being titled 'Christmas is Here'). The Updated Re-release includes a number of extra Christmas missions at the beginning of the chapter.

The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures has the level "Blizzard of Balls", a disturbing level with parts including battling with a snowman and a reindeer and then the Nerd exacting his revenge on Santa for the years of crappy games every Christmas by killing him and going on a downhill ski with his body.

The DLC for Costume Quest took place in winter and during the monsters "yeti festival". Yes the kids where still dressed up for Halloween, why do you ask?

As an added bonus if you play the game on Christmas Day (or you know, just change the clock) you unlock an achievement.

Star Trek Online has an annual winter event with various minigames and prizes, hosted by Q Junior. The event takes place in a pocket dimension populated with gingerbread people, evil snowmen, and a few Breen.

To the Moon has a bonus episode called "SigCorp - Holiday special", which takes place at the main characters' office during a Christmas party.

Resonance of Fate had a Christmas-themed chapter in which the trio deliver presents to children at the square. Leanne wore a Santa dress, while Zephyr and Vashyron dressed as anthropomorphic reindeer. The two guys would later repeat this in Chapter 25 of Project X Zone 2, when they wore the same reindeer outfits that they had in Resonance of Fate and scattered 10 gifts around the map before the map starts. In that map, the primary objective was to collect them in a certain amount of turns.

A minor example in Fallout 4: if the Sole Survivor happens to be in Diamond City on December 25th, then there will be a Christmas tree and Christmas lights set up. It's about as close to a Christmas Episode you can get in an open-world RPG.

The game Clustertruck has a level named "Holiday World" but takes more influences from Christmas.

The Saints Row IV DLC "How the Saints Saved Christmas" is an Affectionate Parody of Christmas tropes, in which the Boss must save Santa Claus and learn the true meaning of the Holiday Spirit by going through various pastiches of various Christmas films/specials.

Since 2013, PAYDAY 2 has released a Christmas-themed heist for the holidays.

2013's Christmas heist was GO Bank, a port of Counter-Strike: GO's Bank map. The only Christmasy elements are a Christmas tree in the lobby, a stereo playing Hoxton's Christmas album, and a light snow falling outside.

2014's heist was White Xmas. Vlad's brother crashed a plane carrying a cocaine shipment - hidden inside wrapped Christmas presents - in the woods. The crew has to rescue him, then recover as much cocaine as they can.

2015's heist was Santa's Workshop. Vlad has the crew hit a Christmas-themed cocaine distribution warehouse to muscle in on the operation. The goal is to protect the "elves" (cocaine packers) while they pack the "presents" (cocaine), then deliver them through a "chimney" (storm drain with a boat waiting below).

2016's heist was Stealing Xmas, once again contracted by Vlad. Vlad's brother messed up again, first by sneaking a shipment of drugs into a pallet of goods that was shipped to a downtown mall, then by dressing up as Santa and getting drunk on-scene. The crew needs to find the right goods, gather them at the giant Christmas tree in the center, destroy the skylight, and airlift the tree off the scene.

The Darkside Detective: In December 2017, an update added a new chapter, "Buy Hard", in which McQueen and Dooley go last-minute Christmas shopping and end up having to save Santa Claus from The Krampus (and having his reindeer clamped by an unsympathetic traffic cop).

Level 20 of Vikings Saga involves collecting scattered presents, taking care of Santa's reindeer and decorating a large tree, while the bonus level for earning three stars on levels 11-20 has you building snowmen.

2002's "A Decemberween Pageant" has Homestar and friends starring in a play about the First Decemberween. It's a convoluted and poorly-acted tale involving two Kobe Bryants, a sailor named Archibald, a Santa-like character known as "Doctor Christmas", an angel, and the King of Town (though it's a bit ambiguous as to whether it's the KOT we know or a predecessor).

2004's Decemberween In July featured a collection of Decemberween-themed shorts, including a Teen Girl Squad cartoon where the girls draw names for a gift exchange... out of the belly of a lion, a kids' book called "That Time Of Year" defaced by Strong Bad, a short in which Puppet Homestar fools around with a battery-operated "Santaman" toy, and the nonsensical Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Decemberween special "Cactus Coffee and the No Tell Motel".

The Strong Bad Email "what I want" has Strong Bad and Marzipan going over a list of terrible gift ideas.

"Decemberween Short Shorts", released in 2006, was a series of extra-short cartoons themed around Decemberween, including Strong Bad having a secret love of tube socks, a scene between ornament versions of the main characters, The Homestar Runner's unsanitary old-timey traditions, and Homestar singing a song to inspire Coach Z to be less creepy so people will want him around on Decemberween.

In 2008's A Death-Defying Decemberween, Homestar announces he's going to sled down the Steep Deep, not so much a hill as a straight drop, and Strong Bad catches him trying to bury a mattress at the base of the hill. Being Strong Bad, he removes the mattress, only for Homestar to make a perfect landing anyway: turns out the mattress was full of hammers, broken glass and candy canes sucked into points, and Homestar was trying to maim himself to keep from having to visit Marzipan's parents.

After a long hiatus, 2010 saw the release of "A Decemberween Mackerel", in which Marzipan and Homestar conspire to save an apparently-sickly Señor Cardgage by cramming him with holiday cheer.

2017 saw the release of the first Christmas episode in seven years, "Dangeresque Puppet Squad: The Hot Jones Hijack". It's a crossover between Dangeresque and Cheat Commandos in which puppet versions of Dangeresque (played by Strong Bad) and Firebert (played by The Cheat) try to stop Stingy Relenque (played by Homestar), a "French-Canadian smuggler and Decemberween-themed bad guy" who's stolen all the Hot Jones in Brainblow City just before the Cheat Commandos' big Decemberween party.

"Pimp Lando's Non-Denominational Holiday Special" in the Pimp Lando series, which is also a Hanukkah Episode, a Kwanzaa episode, and a Ramadan episode, though the episode really has little to do with any of these holidays.

The fifth Prostitute Mickey short revolves around this. The short had Mickey being mistaken for Ebenezer (the series' version of Scrooge McDuck) by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. The events turn out to only be a dream and Ebenezer returns to demand that Mickey let him piss on him again, but Goofy inadvertently saves Mickey and ends Ebenezer's vile ways by shooting and killing him for his wallet.

The (two minute) Christmas episode of Senpai Club has Kurokawa blackmailing Teacher-sensei into going on a Christmas date with her. It ends with Teacher-sensei running away after punching Kurokawa due to her kissing her.

Camp Camp had one after Season 2 ended, titled A Camp Camp Christmas, or Whatever. It still takes place in the summer, but after it starts snowing (do to climate change), the cast decides to pretend that its the holiday season.

Far Out There takes Christmas very, veryseriously. Come December, the comic shifts from updating twice a week to updating daily to squeeze in as many Christmas comics as possible.

My Milk Toof had an arc about the ickle and Lardee finding their Christmas presents, ickle tried to take a look at his but decides to tape it back shut and Lardee unwraps his altogether.

Nerf NOW!! had two Team Fortress 2 Christmas episodes — the first with BLU team Engie-tan making a little mistake — she forgot to turn off something that reacts to red clothes, and another with her next Christmas gift.

Virtual Shackles: A three-part Christmas comic was made that involved Santa, videogames, light cycles, and Farmville.

Thornsaddle ran a twelve-part Christmas story in December 2011 called "A Thornsaddle Christmas Mystery" in which a mysterious figure manipulates one of the students. The creators intend "Christmas Mystery" to become an annual tradition.

Penny Blackfeather had a rather elaborate Twelve Days of Christmas reinterpretation for Christmas 2012, replacing the gifts traditionally mentioned in the song with items/animals/Eldritch abominations related to the comic's themes.

Vatican Assassins takes a break from the story every December to do an "Advent Calendar"—a short story told a panel a day for every day of the religious season of Advent. These short stories usually take place on Christmas and are much more lighthearted than the rest of the series.

2013's story had Viola chasing a demon around St. Peter's during Midnight Mass.

2014's story is about Fife getting a football/soccer ball as a Christmas gift and the kids all playing football/soccer.

2010: Three comics parodying Christmas carols about how Dedede is a jerk (set to Frosty the Snowman), how Waluigi wants presents (set to Carol of the Bells) and how Gannondorf wants the Triforce (set to All I Want for Christmas is You).

2011: "Ice World", a parody of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" centered around the various Slippy Slidey Ice Worlds in Nintendo games.

2012: Dedede, a Bug Catcher, Ganondorf, and Luigi travel for the holidays, culminating in the musical comic "Home" (a parody of "Home for the Holidays") where they come home after their travels.

A side story of Trinton Chronicles featured Christmas themes (although it is called Yule) and took place both in the past and present of the story. The current story takes place during the actual month of December and features decorations and the similar themes of Christmas.

The Whateley Universe did a whole series of Christmas stories, all for Christmas 2006 (when the stories take place). A couple of them even came out at Christmas time, one year or another.

Achievement Hunter had an "Achievement hunter presents: Merry Christmas!" where Achievement city was decorated for the occassions and the crew had snowballs fights, went sledding, built snowmen and exchanged presents.

The Nostalgia Critic absolutely LOVES Christmas. Like with Halloween, has done at least two seasonally appropriate videos every December that the show's been in regular production. Unlike Nostalgiaween, these reviews don't have a subseries nickname. However there is a traditional celebratory freakout that gets more fantastical each year. His love even goes as far to give his Top 11 Lists an extra step beyond.

The Christmas Truces of World Wars I and II: proof that this sort of thing actually happens real life. For many units the war literally went on pause so troops from both sides could venture out into No Man's Land. Some simply called a truce to bury their fallen comrades, while some units actually mingled, exchanged gifts, and sang carols together. There are even accounts of friendly games of football between opposing units. Unsurprisingly, just like many Christmas Specials, the fight was right back on the next day as if nothing had happened.

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